Where the Shadows Dwell
by foxfire inferno
Summary: Hiei got cursed and is dying. Yusuke and the others try to help him, but what if he doesn't want to be saved? DISCONTINUED
1. Under the Cherry Blossom's

**Where shadows dwell**

Chapter 1 : Under the Cherry Bloosm's

The wind whirled around the dark resting figure in the old sakura tree, that was home to tons of birds that left there home vaccant, heading toward warmth, instead of the harsh winter air. The figure moved to a more comfortable position and slowly opeaned his crimsion red eyes, which looked so much like the haze of a dying fire. Most who stared at the fierce eyes never lived long enough to move, let alone tell anyone who they belong to.

Leaves swayed with the branches as th snow hit it with soft fury. If anyone walked by, they could only see the figure hidden deep within the shadows, if they looked hard throguh the blinding storm. Memories dashed in and out of the boy's mind. He has lived three-hundred years, and yet he still didn't know what was happening to him. He has been feeling sick and tired lately. He wasn't eating any more, his stomach twisted ever so much once an hour. He didn't know why, he didn't care. It didn't seem that anyone noticed, or if they did they didn't seem to care. No one ever cared for him, the forbidden one.

But the fire koorime was dead wrong, the others did notice and they certainly did care for their friend; no matter how small that friendship maybe. They noticed that the demon rarely ate and was sleeping more than usual, even more than the stubburn Spirit Detective.

"Guy's, we need to know whats happening to Hiei. I mean, even if the little twerp never really hanged around us that much, but still he looks like crap." stated Yusuke as he slurped up the remainder of his soda.

"... huh, what did you say Uremeshi?" Kuwabara said, coming out of his nap he had taken during the begining of the conversation.

Everyone sweatdropped and sighed. Yusuke and Kurama shook the heads slightly at the tallest in the group. They didn't need any more interuptions.

"Kuwa-baka! Don't you ever pay attention!" screamed Yusuke at the, now seething redhead.

"What did you call me, you punk!" he screamed back.

"People calm down, we're here for Hiei, not to kill one another." Kurama said, trying to keep the peace.

When no one listened, he sighed again. They're here arguing, while Hiei was outside, probably in a tree, freezing himself to death. Even if he was a fire demon, he could only keep so warm...

Hiei jumped from branch to branch until he felt that familiar lurch in his stomach. He slipped off the branch and fell to the wet, cold ground with a sickening thud. His head was spinning and he could see the bottom of the sakura tree he fell from. He felt the lurch stronger this time, and some blood shot out of his open mouth. He heavily closed his eyes, yet he couldn't get them opean again. He just needed to sleep.

The cellphone that Koenma had given them, beeped a few times before the group found it. Kurama picked up the phone and answered it.

"Koenma-sama, what's wrong? " he asked hearing the distressed voice of his boss.

The other two could only watch and try to understand the conversation. They watched as Kurama's face became confused, to understanding, to horrified, then his face turned deathly pale. Kurama end the conversation with a mumbled 'it's ok, and we'll see you later.' He then turned to the others with watery eyes.

"Koenma, he just called to tell us that Hiei died a little while ago. Botan just brought him into Spirit World, and he was taken to hell." he paused slightly taking in the soft gasps from his friends before countinued "She locked herself in her room, telling Koenma she didn't want to be the Grim Reaper anymore if it ment taking all her friends to Spirit World. Yukina has died as well. "

" What!" Kuwabara yelled.

They certainly need to get to Koenma fast, once they make it their mission, they complete it no matter what. After all, they can't die trying, cause where they're going, everyone else is already dead.


	2. South of Heaven

Chapter 2 : South of Heaven

_This place where life sucks and no one can save you. Welcome to South of Heaven._

"Man, I can't believe we're actually in this hell hole." Yusuke whined wiping the sweat off his forhead.

"Don't worry, as soon as we get Hiei's spirit back, we can leave." Kurama said sternly.

"Why can't we just leave him here? I mean, I'm sure he'll just 'love' to live here. Look, it's even nice and sunny." Yusuke said, but soon regretted it as Kurama gave him a pointed glare.

"Now Yusuke, I'm sure you don"t mean that."

"Yes I do. This is what he get's for being sick and not telling us." Yusuke began but was cut off by Kurama.

"But he doesn't deserve to be here. Deep down he's a good person."

"Yeah, deep, deep, deep down maybe, but on the outside, he still pisses me off!" Yusuke mutterred under his breath, but Kurama still heard him, throwing the empty water-bottle at him and wacking him in the head.

"Yep, definitly pisses me off." he grumbled, thanking the gods that Kurama hadn't heard him.

When Hiei awoke he was strangely warm, nothing like the freezing forest he was in. Then, all of his memory came flying back to him.

"Ok" he muttered to himself "dead... and I'm in hell, great."

He picked himself up and looked around. It figures that he would be sent to hell. He would of laughed at how ironic that was, but he found his throat rather dry; and when have Hiei ever laughed. Now that he thought about it, he probably never have, probably never will.

Hell looked, to him, like alot of the 'nigens thought it would be. It was scorching in the underworld, even if he was use to the heat; he was a fire demon after all. He could probably die again from dehydration. It was full of lava and had volcanos piled up every which way. It even had smoke rising from the volcanos' smokey tips drifting to the low ceiling. But the one thing that pissed him off waas that there were no trees. Even if plants were Kurama's thing, he found hiself living in them often, and found them rather relaxing. Where would he live now? A dark, damp crater? I don't think so. In the end, he found him self walking, absolutely no where.

Most would be confused to see three humans in the underworld; most humans don't do bad enough things to be sent to hell. The population mostly consisted of demons.

They began their search for Hiei's soul for about fout hours. His body has been preserved with Koenma's help, after all, he was the prince of the Spirit World. They had up to twenty-four hours until th spell wore of, and his body would start to decompose. Yukina was revived almost immediately since she was allowed to stay in the Reikai, but it also had something to do with Kuwabara screaming bloody murder about his dearest Yukina and how if she wasn't revived this instant, there would be hell to pay.

"How much longer Uremeshi" Kuwabara said, yawning and streching out his legs.

"Why do you think I whould know" he shouted, now annoyed at the question that he asked about thirty times.

Kuwabara and Yusuke started to yell back and forth until Kurama, yet again had to seperate them. It seems the group has gotten worse since the stubborn demon died. He was a sort of mediator, he would fight with one of them if they start to fight with each other, usually ending up as him as the victor while the others just grin and bear it. Of course, he never gloated, unless they provoked him first.

Hiei ended exactly where he started, well, what looked like where he started. He has been walking around for what seemed like hours and he hasn't met anything of great interest, just a couple of orges and lizard demons. As he continued on, he walked straight toward the craters in the east, unable to go north or west because of the cliffs and volcanos. As he reached the craters, what he saw startled him beyond understanding. Humans. Not just any humans, his 'friends'. His 'friends' were here. In hell. Of all the places! They just had to be here!

They continued walking until Kurama felt eyes staring at him. Curious, he turned around and met crimsion eyes glaring at them. He gasped and backed up a few steps until he tripped over a rock. Even as he fell the short distance to the ground, he never once looked away. Yusuke wondering why he stopped looked toward were their friend was staring at. he motioned to Kuwabara to look also. What they saw was Hiei staring, well glaring right at them.

With his demonic speed, Hiei made his way toward the group. Running as fast as he could.

"What are you doing here" he growled. He thought he got rid of them.

"What do you mean ' what are we doing here ' we're here for you you stubburn jackass!" Yusuke spat at the growling demon.

Kurama was happy to see his friend, yet sad to see they weren't wanted. " Hiei, how exactly did you die." he asked quietly, making the others stop yelling so they would be able to here them.

But Hiei didn't answer instead he stated "I don't want to go back."

"Why" such a small word, but it has so much meaning.

"Because, if I was suppose to die, I need to stay dead."

"Were you suppose to die."

There was a small snort before he said a simple "apparently"

"Are you sure? Yukina died as well, maybe someone cursed you."

When Hiei heard this, his back went stiff, no one touched his sister."Yukina died?" he stated through clenched teeth.

'Opps. Let that slip. Won't happen again.' "Yes, but even if you are twins, you wouldn't die on the same day at the same exact time, Hiei, it's not possible, there has to be the same some explaination." Kurama said calmly, none of the feelings he had in his head.

Hiei just nodded and walked with the group back to the port-key that Koenma gave them to get to the underworld. They walked through it and back to the Reikai were Koenma and his body awaited him.


	3. Ichihatshu no Hana

Chapter 3 : Ichihatshu no hana

_Once again the birds awake from, what they thought a silent spring. _

Yukina was singing, sitting in Koenma's garden, that was behind the Reikai palace. A bird flew over to her and landed on her shoulder as she continued to sing. It has been about a month since Hiei got back and she was happy that her brother was going to be fine. When she found out that Hiei was her brother, she was shocked. She always thought of him as an older brother and now that she found out that he was, she was even happier. Now she didn't need to search for her brother and she could stay with Genkai-sensai.

Kuwabara was happy that Yukina was safe, he was around all of the time, she didn't mind, but sometimes she would want to be by herself or with Hiei. Everyone was back to normal; Kuwabara-annoying, Yusuke-loud, Kurama-trying to keep the peace, and Hiei-on his own.

The bird sang with Yukina as she picked a few flowers from the plants that started to grow once spring started. It was a beautiful day even though it had a few mid-morning showers. I guess the flowers needed all of the help they could get. That was life, and she was going to give her brother all the help that she could give, after all, she had three-hundred years to catch up on.

It's been almost a year now and life has gotten almost back to normal. But Hiei has been acting duller than usual. He's been coming and going for weeks at a time, and it was driving Yusuke crazy. It finally drove him over the edge and he went ballistic.

"What's your problem!" Yusuke yelled. The group had been walking toward their mission, and he just snapped, he was sick of Hiei just appearing out of no where.

"hn..?" Hiei was quite confused at his companion's outburst.

"grrrr..What's with you and your 'hudini' act! I'm sick of you being there one minute and 'poof' your gone again!"Yusuke screamed at him, letting out his frustration.

"ch'...baka nigen"Hiei muttered preparing to pull a 'hudini', as Yusuke so properly named it.

"What was that shrimp"that did it, Hiei was now totally pissed. He didn't like it when the oaf called him a shrimp, let alone an anoyying Spirit Detective. But, he knew a better way to piss him off. He started to slow down until he was walking in pace with Yusuke. When he turned to face him he said a loud "poof" and disappeared. Then he appeared again, after a few seconds, he uttered one final "hn" and was no longer in site.

"What's with him?"Kurama said to himself, confused with this little 'fight', he and Yusuke had. Hn. He was confused alot lately. with one final shake of his head, he followed after the two who were alittle ways ahead.

Hiei hopped from tree to tree, sighing when he was farther than the others. 'Screech...' Hiei's eye's shot open at the sound, but nothing else seemed to be startled by it.

'Heart as cold as winter day, eyes as dark as night

longing for the darkness fair, hiding from the light'

"That song"Hiei muttered, he knew it.

'lurking were the shadows dwell, under cherry tree's

go, return to hell, while the worthy shall run free'

Oh, he hated that song, the koorimes sang it right before they threw him off the cliff.

'waves like from the ocean shore, tiny grains of sand

the frightful memories before, darkness of the land'

The song was singing itself within his mind. He couldn't get rid of it.

'going in the lion's den, never coming out

not knowing who's foe or friend, like rain falling in a drought'

That had to be it, nothing else seems to be hearing it.

'climbing up a mountain, never make a sound

breaking through the concrete, never coming down'

He was getting a painful headace, and it wouln't seem to go away, not even with the help of his jagan eye. Hiei fell to the ground clutching his head. He didn't want to hear that now. Not ever. He tried to block it out, but the noise wouldn't go away. During this time he relived tons of terrible memories. The time he was thrown of the cliffs, beaten and abused by said 'parental character'; which apparently rescued him from certain death. He felt no remorse for killing half of the clan. Or finding out he had a long lost twin. Well that explains how a half-koorime bastard can't even an ounce of ice, only the molten hot fire that he can produce in a blink of an eye. He found his twin, yet couldn't find any ounce of respect for himself to tell her.

Also the pain of fighting, the tiredness of using the 'Kokayaro' dragon of the darkness flame, or the ancient fist of the immortal flame. In the comatose state where, if your enemy isn't dead, you'd be momentarily.

The sudden weakness.


	4. Kissing Moonlight, Seeing Dark

Chapter 4 : Kissing Moonlight, Seeing Dark

_Each petal of the flower, each water drop's of rain, Kissing Moonlight, Seeing Pain_

When he awoke, he relized he must of passed out. He looked around to see he wasn't where he was before, but on the Koorime's Floating Island. The elders were gathered around him, but something caught his eye. There was a male; other than himself, standing next to them. he looked similar to himself, but taller, and was a pure-blooded fire demon. His breath caught in his throat as he realised that 'this' was his father.

The man on koorime island watched as his 'son' came to, and all of the elders gathered around him. One of the maiden's turned toward the man and started to speak softly.

"Kage-sama, the forbidden one has awakened, what do you wish we do with him?"

"Bring him to the temple, we need to locked him up." Kage replied still watching Hiei.

"Yes, m'lord" she replied.

The maidens left quickly, preparing their things and leaving them alone for a short while.

"Father," Hiei hissed "what do you want"

"Hmm...sorry, I can't tell you. Oh, but don't worry...you'll know soon enough" kage cooed smiling.

"Grrrr..."

"tut tut ...no biting, unless you want a muzzle." he stated while looking down to Hiei.

"..."

Kage just smiled again and shook his head; it was such fun messing with others minds. He turned around to see the maidens filing back over to the area ha and Hiei were in. They took Hiei with them and went to the temple with Kage trailing softly behind. It was going to be along day.

Yusuke, kuwabara, Kurama, and Yukina were all sitting in Genkai's temple drinking tea, when Koenma bursted through the door.

"Where's Hiei" Koenma said looking for the little demon.

"The shrimp's not here" Kuwabara said. Then turned back to speak with his 'darling' Yukina.

"What!" Koenma yelled, starting to panic.

Kurama and Yukina went to try and calm him down. Try was the key word.

"What's wrong Koenma-sama" asked Yukina, now worried for her brother.

"The maidens must of taken him" Koenma muttered.

"What!" everyone in the room screamed.

Koenma glared at them and more calmly said "Lord Kage, Yukina's and Hiei's father, was resurrected by the koorimes to get rid of Hiei."

"Why?"this brilliant question was asked by Yusuke.

"Well, Hiei survied the curse, which was truely meant for him, not both of you. But, since you two are twins you both some how got it."

Yukina's face turned really sad and she started to cry. Tear gems clinking on the ground along with Kuwabara's words trying to sooth the maiden, were the only sounds in the silent room. Yusuke looked guilty, for making Hiei angry and leaving. Kurama was sad that he couldn't help his friend and Kuwabara, we'll he was mad at the shrimp for making Yukina cry.

Hiei woke the third time that day, and now he was in a dungeon appearently in the Koorime's temple. He was getting annoyed at having to do the same exact thing everytime, to keep waking up in a totally different place then before. He sat himself up and looked around the room. There were rusty chains hanging from the stone walls. In the corner sat a small cot, which shows how 'nice' his captors were to not even take a few extra steps to actually put him on the cot and not dropped on the floor. He rubbed his sore back, where he must of hit a rock, because it was bruised and sore.

Hiei picked himself up and over to where there was a small window. He looked outside and he could see it was a little after dusk. He strolled over to the cot after he stifled a yawn. As he was drifting off to sleep, slightly promising to himself, that if he woke up in a different place, he would murder someone, hopefully the ones who brought him here. Thankfully it was a drreamless sleep, he couldn't take anymore nightmares.


	5. Whispers

Chapter 5 : Whispers

Hiei woke up to the sound of his cell being slamed open and shut. His body jerked up when a hand picked him off of the rusty cot. He didn't have time to react because he was then thrown across the room with a loud crash as his body slamed into the stone wall. He groaned in pain as he lifted his head a few inches off the ground to see two pairs of feet stomp over to him.

"Wakey, wakey little one," Kage cooed as he again picked up the slumped figure by the hair. "time to get up."

He then threw Hiei's limp body onto the floor and crouched down next to him so that they were eye level.

"What do you want." Hiei spat, glaring at his captor.

"Oh, really my son," at this Hiei glared harder, "Do you really think I wouldn't come visit you. After all, I was the one who captured you, was I not?" Kage taunted laughing softly.

Hiei started growling and tried to throw himself at Kage, but found that his energy was drained. He struggled up to a sitting postion and noted hatefully, that even that small move had him panting. Kage snorted in amusement as he watched this, smiling cruely.

"Don't bother. You've been warded, so don't waste what little energy that you do have." Kage said, still laughing.

"Why did you bring me here." Hiei sneered.

Kage smiled again. That was his son, so much like him, getting straight down to business.

"I want to make a deal"

After Koenma and Yukina finally calmed, they all agreed to have their meeting in Koenma's office. They were all seated around his desk or leaning against the walls. Kuwabara and Boton, who came when the group arrived, helped console the depressed Yukina. The others were trying to figure what was going on while waiting for Koenma to return. After about ten minutes the door slamed open and Koenma stomped in carrying a ton of scrolls and old manuscrips. He dumped the group of scrolls on his desk before slumping into his over stuffed chair.

"Ok., I bet all of you are wondering what's going on, " Koenma said only stopping alittle to glare at Yusuke for interupting with a loud 'hell yeah!' "It seems that the Lord Kage has been reawakened by thte Koorimes."

"We already heard that part!" Yusuke stated

"If you would let me finish," Koenma said glaring again at Yusuke. "Anyway, now that Kage has come back and has Hiei we are in a bit of trouble."

"Why is that?" Kurama asked.

"Because, even if Hiei is a really strong demon, Kage is even stronger. He could use Hiei to try and take over the world. The only problem is that the Koorimes ressurrected him to destroy Hiei because they feared that the Forbidden Child would be stong enough to kill them and the entire race of ice demons. But that's exactly whats going to happen now that Kage is reawakened."

"But Hiei wouldn't help him take over the world."Yusuke protested.

"But, Yusuke, he wouldn't really have a choice." Kurama muttered finally understanding where this conversation was going.

"No" Hiei stated looking away.

"But, my dear, you didn't even hear the question, and it's not like you have a choice." Kage cooed in a sickingly sweet way, like talking to a child.

"It doesn't matter, my answer is no."

Kage shook his head with a sigh. Another trait he shared with his son, being really stubborn. Oh well, its not like he wouldn't get his way eventually. After all, he always got his way. He slowly uncurled from his postion on the floor and walked to the exit. He could always try later, and Hiei would cave in sooner or later. He just hoped it was the sooner rather than the later. With that thought he smirked and left the room and the still sneering Hiei.

After the door closed Hiei was once again left alone. He sat their trying to make up a plan and try to escape. After a few hours he finally fell asleep. The ward didn't leave enough energy to get up and lay on the cot so he just fell a sleep where he was. Yep, today was going to be a long day.


End file.
